Huawei will eventually transition to more advanced 5nm chipsets, and it aims to get rid of foreign elements, and it hopes to achieve this goal with the help of SMIC. According to a new report from the Financial Times, China's largest semiconductor manufacturer is planning to build production lines to mass-produce next-generation chips and will continue to use the Kirin brand.
After the success of the Kirin 9000S, which is mass-produced using SMIC's 7nm process to power the Mate60 series, Huawei needs to continue to maintain this momentum. As the release date of the Mate70 series approaches, Huawei must develop a chip with stronger performance and higher efficiency to surpass the performance of Kirin 9000S in all aspects. While in its current condition, the Kirin 9000S is unlikely to win any performance or power-saving awards, the fact that it reached mass production without help from outside companies is an impressive feat in this industry.
According to reports, in order to achieve the production target of 5-nanometer chips, SMIC will reuse existing DUV equipment for mass production. There had been rumors that the Chinese company would go this route, but one chip industry source said that while mass production of 5nm chipsets is entirely possible, the price will be low yields and expensive production costs.
Not long ago, there were reports that Dutch EUV equipment manufacturer ASML was banned from providing Chinese companies with advanced equipment necessary for manufacturing cutting-edge chips. Faced with this major setback, SMIC and Huawei have little choice but to use current-generation hardware, but how successful will this plan be when launching 5nm Kirin SoCs in the future?
It was previously rumored that Huawei was preparing the Kirin 9010 for the upcoming P70 family, but the details of the photolithography technology were not shared.